Abstract:
Globally, about 830 women die daily due to complications of pregnancy and child
birth. Out of these, 550 deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and 180 in Southern
Asia, compared to 5 in developed countries. World Health Organization
recommended that all pregnant women should have access to good quality
Emergency obstetric care (EMOC).The objective of the study was to establish factors
influencing adherence to national guidelines on emergency obstetric care and
associated health outcomes among pregnant women and newborns in Samberg
Central Sub- county. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design
involving six public health facilities offering maternity services were involved in this
study. The study was conducted between June to November 2016. A census of 990
pregnant women who had utilized the selected health facilities were involved in the
study. Achecklist was also used to inspect the infrastructure in the maternity
department. In addition, In addition, key-informant interviews were conducted
among facility in-charges. Data was extracted into an SPSS database. Descriptive
statistics and chi-square statistics were useful for analysis. Quantitative and
Qualitative data were thematically coded and evaluated. The results indicated that
67.8% of the pregnant women who attended the facilities were married, 20.1% were
single, and 1.6% and 8.5% were separated. On educational background 47.2% of all
the pregnant women have never attended at any level of education, 24.3% primary
school, 17.8% secondary school, 7% college level and 3.7% attended the university.
Out of 6 health facilities five health facilities were Basic emergency obstetric cares
(83.3%) offering the six signal functions while 16.7% offered comprehensive
emergency obstetric care services. On EMOC training, Marital county referral
hospital had 1(62.5%) trained on EMOC, SurgutMar marhealth Centre 3 (12.5%)
Kisimahealth Centre (12.5%) Loosuk health Centre 1(4.7%), Porrohealth Centre1
(4.7%) and Lolmolog health Centre (4.7%). The main health outcomes encountered
were obstructed labour 6(0.6%), antepartum haemorrhage (0.4%) and postpartum
hemorrhage (0.4%).There was need to upgrade the at least two health facilities to
provide comprehensive emergency obstetric care services. The national and county
government should employ skilled health personnel and capacity building with
training and knowledge and finally there was need for education of all pregnant
mothers to attend antenatal clinic.